Last year, I had the extreme good fortune of attending two of America's premier artistic events. As an artist, both events left a profound impact on me and my outlook on the current pulse of today's art world. Both of these events are perhaps the largest in the world of their kind and hold a prominence among their chosen audiences.

Most recently, this past December, OOK’s was an official sponsor of Art Basel, today's ultimate high end art show. Originating in Basel Switzerland, Art Basel featured most of the top end galleries from every corner of the globe. Floor space in the Miami Beach convention center was expensive and so was the art, some pieces being priced in the millions. Top collectors from around the world came to see the hottest and most pricey offerings in paintings, sculptures, mixed-media, photography, installation, conceptual and video art. Every major news source in the art world was covering the event as well as an extensive collection of regular media. After the exhibit floor closed, Miami's normally sizzling night life was dominated by parties, private gallery openings, and other Basel spin-off events. It was the talk of the town, and for a week, Miami was the talk of the art world.

Prior to the glitz and glimmer of Art Basel, in late August, I flew to a desolate and barren dried up lake bed in northern Nevada. There, just out side of Gerlach, in Black Rock Desert National Park, 30,000 artists and participants take vacation from reality. Called "Burning Man", the festivals participants form a community with its own rules, etiquette, events, newspapers, ceremonies, and beliefs. It’s a celebration of creativity, so diverse and complex that even being there for 9 days, I barely scratched the surface of its entirety. From a full scale re-creation of the Mad Max Thunder Dome, to a school bus converted into a 70 ft whale, anything goes and the possibilities are endless.

Based around a "gift" economy; participants live to nourish the bodies, mind and souls of each other. At night, it becomes a city of light, alive with the latest illuminescent technologies and fire in many forms. Many people mistakenly associate Burning Man with the "Rave" scene or the "Hippy" scene, and although it may contain elements of these, it focuses clearly on the act of creative self-expression through personalized and group artistic endeavors.

Comparing Art Basel and Burning Man isn't like comparing Apples and Oranges; it's like comparing Freudian Psychology and the Atom Bomb. Many in the "legitimate" art world look down at Burning Man as simply a crazy party out in the desert. Many Burning Man participants would probably laugh at what the "legitimate" art world deems as art. Yet these two events, oceans apart in ideology and approach, both put much of the greatest art the world has to offer, on display for anyone to see.

Therefore, when assigned the task of comparing the art from these two divergent events, how is one to establish a criterion by which to judge? My own personal measure for artistic value can be divided into three categories.

Content. How does a work of art affect you? Does it inspire, motivate, and fill you with emotion? Does it make you question your own preconceptions? Educate, instill a sense of awe or wonder?

Craftsmanship. How difficult was it to create the work of art, how much thought and how many hours went into its creation. Is it something a five year-old could create or did it take genuine skill?

Accessibility. How large an audience will a piece speak to? How many people will it affect? Who will recognize it for its genius, a limited scope of people, or will the world, and more importantly, will history embrace it as a masterpiece?

A final note before entering into the dangerous waters of criticism. For someone attending Art Basel, the hype and promotion around the event truly prepares you to believe you will be witnessing the best money can buy. With Burning Man, the only expectation is that until attended, one has no idea what will transpire. Clearly one of these promotional strategies sets a high bar in the mind of its audience, while the other opens the mind to limitless possibilities.

Content

Content is possibly the most affected by expectations, I went to Art Basel expecting to be astounded by the ground shaking force of today's leading contemporary artists. I wasn't and this is not to discredit the artists or the organizers of the event but more a comment on the current state of contemporary art. Very few pieces spoke to me, questioned me, and forced me to reach outside my own myopic prospective and preconceived notions. Very little was challenging, but this is because I was expecting too much and it left me feeling frustrated. In this space of prime convention hall real estate, they had hung a series of painting, all consisting of a single color, appropriately titled "Red Painting", "Blue Painting", etc. I didn't posses the will power to ask the price with a straight face, but I can't believe that they were any less than $10,000 a piece and probably much more.

Burning Man, on the other hand, was constantly questioning my preconceived notion of reality, and more exactly, what is possible. One moment you were in a giant aquarium the next in a flaming flower garden. Every moment was unexpected, novel, and unique.

Craftsmanship

For Burning Man, craftsmanship is a double edged sword. Much of the work is extremely amateurish, unrefined and sloppy, but that's to be expected when most of the active participants are not professional artists. What was exceptional about the craftsmanship was the use of technology and its artistic integration. Dr. Megavolt shot lightning bolts out of a Vandegraf generator, a pirate ship raised 5 stories out of the desert, and the emphasis wasn't on refinement, but on pushing the envelope of the possible.

Basel also had its ups and downs. One conceptual artist molded a pile of trash into a sculpture and when lit from a certain angle projected the perfect shadows of a boy and girl seated on a bench. The detail was so precise that even the lenses on the sunglasses the boy held between his legs were tinted appropriately. It was truly astonishing. Conversely, there were far too many pieces that took little or no skill and demonstrated a complete lack of care and craftsmanship. A piece by an artist whose name was very recognizable glued chunks of astro-turf to junk plywood. This piece, in my opinion, resembled a junior high shop project rather than high priced art work.

Accessibility

One can't be human and not be moved by the art on the Playa, the term used for the event grounds at Burning Man. Like or hate the event, what happens there speaks to the universal quality that is creative inspiration. I saw 5 year old kids and 80 year old couples, all enjoying the environment, dazzled with wide-eyed amazement.

Art Basel seemed like you either need enormous amounts of education or money to appreciate what was there. Very little art I would have considered universal. I spent a great deal of time eavesdropping on gallery owners explaining the artist's philophies and latest trends. Am I wrong in thinking that "Art should speak for itself"? Any piece of art that needs to be explained, in my opinion, has failed but clearly that is not the opinion of today's art world.

Perhaps a reason for this can be found in Art Basel's program. Nearly every single gallery present at Art Basel is named after an individual, most likely the founding or current gallery owner. It would seem from this fact that they, the gallery owners, are the people who are dictating what art is presented to the top-end clientele. Thinking about this fact, one can't help but ask; if any of the pieces at Art Basel were on sale at a garage sale or flea market, would they be recognized as great art? Dali's "Hallucinogenic Troubadour" would, Jackson Pollack would speak volumes, but it seemed as if very little at Art Basel would survive beyond its context, its reputation. Not to say there wasn't some great art there that would stand the test of time and wavering public opinion, but it wasn't easy to find.

Looking forward, I'll probably attend both of these events again for in their own way, they were tremendous experiences. For those among you that are art collectors, clearly Basel is where you should go; you can't buy anything at Burning Man. For those of you who are artists, both are worthy experiences although I can guarantee which one you'll enjoy more. For the vast majority, those I would call appreciators I would say the answer is simple. If you want to look at art, come to Miami next December and attend Art Basel. For those of you who want to live art, be immersed in art, and be profoundly affected by art, I'll see you on the Playa.